Christie should stop blame game and get to work

Chris Christie has been governor for more than a year now, but he keeps pretending that he is not a bit responsible for the problems that surround him. Here are two recent examples:

He claims that Democrats are to blame for the 4.1 percent spike in property taxes last year because Jon Corzine’s cap had so many loopholes. And Democrats will be to blame next year, too, he says because they’re not adopting key reforms aimed at cutting local costs.

His critique of the Democrats is dead-on. But what about his own share of the blame?

Christie cut roughly $1.3 billion in aid to schools and towns this year. In response, schools and towns tightened their belts, with mass reductions in teaching staffs and police departments. They closed libraries, charged schoolkids to play sports or join clubs, and negotiated tougher contracts. And still they had to raise taxes.

It is beyond silly to deny that cuts in state aid played a role. And the governor can’t blame these cuts entirely on the recession, either. His insistence on lower taxes for the richest 1 percent, in the face of this crisis, played a role as well.

We heard more of this blame game when Christie discussed the recent court decision on school funding.

"Its crazy, just crazy," he said. "This is like saying ‘We’ve got a broken system, and we spend on it much more than anyone else, so to fix it, let’s spend more money.’ "

The state Supreme Court, in this story, is the enemy of reform. But the inconvenient fact is that the court has never blocked sensible school reform.

If the governor wants to cut school waste, he should propose a way to achieve it. The state runs the three largest districts in the state, so he can start there. He is also welcome to reform tenure, expand charter schools, pay teachers by merit or push any other reform he wants. The Supreme Court has never stood in his way.

So please, Gov, give it a rest. Pointing fingers is not leadership. This game of wedge politics makes for good YouTube moments. But how about getting to work fixing the problems?